LEVERAGING WEB 2.0 FOR MARKETING
ADVANTAGE
Discover the opportunities - now!
By Professor Stuart Read - January 2009
IMD
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http://www.imd.ch
Web 2.0 has turned the web upside down. Marketing professionals who fail to recognize this may, at best, find themselves left behind. At worst, they risk losing control of their message with potentially giving a marketing advantage to their competitors. But for marketers who leverage the technology in smart and flexible ways, there are excellent opportunities for communicating with clients, building awareness and driving innovation.
What is Web 2.0?
A few years ago, a company could put up a website and consider itself web ready. Users were fed the information the company wanted to feed them. Web 2.0 makes the Internet
bi-directional. The experience is more interactive and control has shifted to the user. The
engagement style is more spontaneous and chaotic. Communication cycles have been reduced from months and years to minutes and hours. Web 2.0 is driven by a range of Web
technologies and uses. This includes:
− Blogs
− Mash-ups
− Podcasts
− RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
− Social networks (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn) − Audio/Video streaming
− Wikis (Wikipedia and offshoots)
For politics just like for business
Barack Obama’s presidential election campaign offers an excellent example of these tools delivering powerful results like mobilizing voters and unprecedented grassroots fundraising. Using tools from Facebook to YouTube, Obama’s Web presence outpaced McCain’s and gave Obama an inexpensive and powerful edge with an influential tech-savvy voting group. While past presidential elections have underscored the emergent power of a new technology, such as the first televised debates, the Obama campaign may be looked back upon as the moment the public understood the impact of Web 2.0.
Successful marketing in a Web 2.0 world
The possibilities of Web 2.0 demand a novel approach to marketing. The competitive advantage will go to those who can work with the new approach and tools, accept the user’s voice as part of the mix and give users options for interaction. Creative and intelligent use of Web 2.0 tools can help marketers reach customers (through better understanding of customer needs and by adding new depths to interaction with customers); better understand and manage their image on the web; and refine operational practices to stay ahead of the competition. From the
spectrum of uses, here are some of the most useful, together with example companies:
1. Listen and understand. Consumers interact on the web through social technologies like blogs, YouTube, Facebook and consumer forums. Tune in for valuable insights into consumer needs and desires. Del Monte, for example, uses a private community to understand the desires of pet owners.
2. Talk. Executive blogs like GM’s FastLane are a quick and direct way to talk to, and with, the customer base. But businesses must be willing to forsake the message control of older methods. Blog posts don’t get PR sign-off. If they do, they will likely be perceived as phony. Another way to reach the audience is with podcasting like at IBM. Increase impact of podcasts by including text to ensure search engine hits and by encouraging RSS feeds.
3. Energize, support and embrace. Use social technologies to unite your most enthusiastic customers, supercharge the power of their word of mouth and make them brand
ambassadors, as Fiskars Brands did with its Fiskateers scrapbooking community or Nike with its Nike+ community. Tools like forums and wikis help customers support each other and can save costs for companies who run forums, like Intuit. Customers can also be integrated into the workings of the business. Dell’s IdeaStorm is a powerful example of how customers’ suggestions can help improve products.
4. Track and manage brand image. When consumers share information through social technologies, it can have a real impact on your brand—one way or the other. Use Technorati (technorati.com) to evaluate who is blogging about you and where and what is being said. Manage appropriately, such as ensuring the accuracy of Wikipedia entries.
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5. Gain the edge with date information. Use RSS feeds to deliver valuable up-to-date information to you. Some useful feeds you can create are:
− Blogs, news sites, etc. that discuss your company or product − Competitors’ websites and blogs/news that cover competitors
− News searches, trend forecasters, etc. related to your target market.
6. Enhance internal communications. Use Web 2.0 tools to improve effectiveness across organizations through better knowledge management, fostering collaboration,
enhancing company culture and providing training opportunities.
What holds people back?
At a recent IMD Discovery Event, “Reinventing Marketing”, I discussed Web 2.0 with about 65 marketing executives from a range of industries and geographies. When asked about the top issues holding their firms back from embracing Web 2.0 technologies, the answers suggested that lack of understanding and fear are the main reasons that organizations lag behind.
But aside from the creative power that these technologies can unleash, marketers should also consider that these technologies are free or very inexpensive. And so experimenting on the cheap with Web 2,0 technologies, learning and refining, is an excellent approach to gain
experience and turn apprehension into new ideas. Given the recession we are facing, what can be better than reaching customers and being able to say to the boss, "it’s free"?
Professor Read is Dean of Research, Development and Publishing at IMD. He is Co-Director of the Program for Executive Development and also teaches on the Advanced Strategic
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